How come Olympic Snowboarders wear such bulky clothing?

Unlike Alpine skiing events where scores are solely based on times, scoring in Snowboarding and Freestyle skiing is based on style as well. In events that don't involve style, such as Boarder/SkierCross, racers compete in heats against each other and then advance based on how they finish in the heats. Therefore the need for a speed suit is unnecessary.

Alpine Snowboarding racers do wear tight suits. Like their skiing counterparts, they do race a course for time only. Check out this link and scroll down to see what Chris Klug is wearing.

http://www.astpressroom.com/pressroom/release.asp?...

they are good snowboarders regardless of the clothing they are wearing. clothing doesnt make you a better rider, thats like saying that if you buy a 1500 dollar snowboard you are gonna ride like shaun white

Many are wearing body armor under those bulky outfits. Butt pads, hip pads and in other sensitive places of the body.

they go really fast, its snowing, they get cold. and for protection, you can get really injured bad if you mess up bad.